


In Distress

by Sara_Ellison



Series: Everything Changes [6]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 12:08:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sara_Ellison/pseuds/Sara_Ellison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of this predicament is Jack's own fault, but part of it is John's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Distress

After John left, Jack spent a moment, gathering himself, before he got up and dressed. It had taken a lot out of him, the emotional release as well as the physical. In the course of an hour he'd been dumped by his boyfriend and fucked the hell out of his ex-whatever-they-had-been. Jack felt very alone, suddenly, in his empty ship orbiting a strange planet at the edge of a strange galaxy, but he found that he was all right with that.

His fingers fumbled on the buttons of his shirt, unexpectedly clumsy. He glanced down to actually pay attention to what he was doing and yelled a curse. His fingernails were blue. Really blue. He rushed, stumbling, to the head and stared at his reflection in the mirror. His face was ice-pale, his lips as blue as his nails. "Computer!" he shouted.

There was no response. Cursing, he stumbled out to the cockpit, his balance less than sure. Red lights flashed across the console, a hull integrity warning, oxygen level warning, internal temperature warning--he shivered, suddenly aware of the sweat cooling on his skin in a way he hadn't noticed with John spread out beneath him on his bunk. The screen displayed two messages--one, in large red flashing letters, read "HULL BREACH." The second, small and calm and yellow, said "Audio muted."

 _Muted? Why the hell--_ Oh. Damn it all to a thousand hells, he'd told the computer to shut up. And it, perverse AI that it was, interpreted that as a command to remain silent, come hell or high water.

"Computer, restore audio!" Jack snarled, and was nearly deafened by the warning klaxons. "Silence alarms!" he shouted above the din. "Seal the damn hull breach!"

"Unable to comply," the infernal machine responded. "Automatic repair functions offline. Warning: life support systems unable to compensate for hull breach. Air depletion in approximately forty-five seconds."

Fuck, fuck _fuck_ this was bad. Jack's head was swimming, no doubt from a lack of oxygen. Okay, focus--problem, solution. He wouldn't have time to fix the breach before he ran out of air--he wouldn't even have time to suit up and access it. He turned aft and stumbled toward the locker that held the emergency life-support gear. The radiant heat from the ship's engines was less effective with less air, but it kept him warm enough to move. Oxygen was his highest priority.

"Computer, send out a distress signal with our current coordinates and condition." His hands were clumsy, and he struggled with the handle of the locker. "What the fuck happened, anyway?"

"Readings indicate that the interference of two vortex manipulators operating in close proximity created a spatial anomaly which ruptured the hull."

Two vortex manipulators--John. John had piggybacked his wriststrap's signal off Jack's to teleport his ass back to this universe, and killed Jack in the process. Again. John had killed him _again_. Jack would heal, sure, and wake up in a vacuum and die again instantly, over and over until someone found him and rescued him, just like before when John buried him alive. For someone who claimed to love him, John sure did kill Jack an awful lot.

Jack's legs gave out as he managed to open the emergency locker. He struggled, reaching for the oxygen mask hanging just out of reach, and silently cursed--he didn't have the breath to spare for words anymore. He cursed John for killing him and Alonso for leaving him and the Doctor for not coming for him. Slumped on the deck, he fought to stay conscious, stay alive, but his eyelids were heavy and he thought his vision would probably go black even if he kept them open.

Being alone didn't seem all right anymore. Jack let out a breath, knowing that he could not draw another. As cold darkness overtook him, he thought-hallucinated-wished he heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS' engines.


End file.
